Amityville Horror (2005)

I'm one of these people who really loves movies about ghosts.  I am also one these people who thinks that the original Amityville story was not real.  I don't pretend to possess knowledge of what would cause a family to invent such a story, but I just think it's bunk. No family before (and that includes the Defeo's) or since has had any kind of "demonic" experience in the home (and, yes, I know that the home was moved to another plot of land). That is why I don't get too worked up about the "merits"--or the lack thereof--of the remake.  From a Native American point of view, it actually has a lot more to recommend it.  

In the original movie that native "presence" would be hard to miss if you weren't looking for it.  Helen Shaver's character claims to have a psychic vision, or knowledge that the local Shinnecoock Indians abandoned their mentally ill there to die.  I have never heard of any natives from north America doing any such thing (some nomadic peoples in the Amazon had/have practices of abandoning the ill and old who are too weak to walk); and this being set on Long Island, such a practice would have been noticed and documented.  Which is why I really like the whole Indian sub-story in the remake; that is, of a white European man torturing natives for some reason.  Of course, it's just a story made up for the film, but that is really how I feel about the original Amityville story--only it was concocted for a book over time.  The real story of natives on Long Island is a long a varied one.  Some interesting facts about the Amityville area can be found here, including some very interesting stuff about the inspirations for some of the characters in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Today is Long Island is home to 3 distinctive Native American communities, with two of them have actual reservations, including the Federally recognized Shinnecock.

For some native discussions on the matter click here.  Please note that this is from 2006 and the person who instigated the discussion is obviously Tsalagi (Cherokee), not part of the three tribes who still maintain existence on Long Island.  [Also being part Cherokee myself, I want to apologize for the use of Lakota "Wasichu" in the posts!  It's not a word that I use lightly.]